Rickie Lambert signed for Southampton five years ago (Picture: Getty Images)

Sunday marked the anniversary of two significant points in recent Southampton history.

It was the day that both five years ago Rickie Lambert signed from Bristol Rovers, and more poignantly four years since owner Markus Liebherr passed away.

Two events that had a massive impact on the fortunes of this football club, one in an extremely positive way, the other cruel and untimely.

Markus Liebherr will forever be remembered as the saviour of Southampton football club, there is little to argue about in that respect. Were it not for his takeover of the club in July 2009 it is not worth contemplating where we might be now, if we were anywhere at all. The unassuming and quiet Swiss German businessman prevented disaster and set about rebuilding the club, laying the groundwork for what it is today.

One of the earliest acts of the Liebherr era was the signing of Lambert, undoubtedly one of the best bits of transfer business in the clubs history. One of the few public statements from Liebherr at the time of the takeover read ‘I believe we have a fantastic opportunity to rebuild this great club.’ and rebuild he did, and then some.

Saints were already successful on the pitch at the time of Liebherr’s sudden death. Having already won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, they went into their second season in League One as undoubted promotion favourites, and it was with great sadness that the man himself would not be there to see it. Although his death came as a shock to everybody at the time, there was some suggestion that he had known his time was running out, and that he had made provisions for the club in the event of his passing, but even now we are unsure as to the long term impact it had.

His daughter Katherina undoubtedly became an ‘accidental’ owner of a Premier League football club, and started with a completely hands off approach, leaving the running of the club to her father’s right hand man Nicola Cortese. Five years on from the joyous time of the takeover, Rickie Lambert has gone, but Ms Liebherr is now fully in charge, having ‘fallen in love’ with the club last season.

Whatever the future holds for Saints, the memories of the last few years will never die, and though with the beginning of the 2014-15 season almost upon us it might seem like the end of another era, that also means the start of a new one.